This week is it for the state House and Senate this year, at least until they come back for any bills vetoed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

Each chamber will convene to consider the Committee of Conference Reports agreed to by House and Senate negotiators last week.

In total, 41 House bills will go back to the Senate while seven Senate bills are headed to the House. If approved, they will return to their original chamber for a final up-or-down vote before heading to the governor’s desk.

Thursday, June 4
10 a.m. House Session- Representatives Hall
SB 481 relative to the sale of the Sununu Youth Services Center property. The Senate wanted any proceeds to go toward the settlement fund with victims of abuse at that facility. The House prevailed, and any money from the sale will go into the state’s General Fund, with the next legislature deciding how much more to appropriate to the settlement.

SB 538 would extend net metering eligibility terms for municipal energy projects. Ayotte has been highly skeptical of any expansion of net metering but agreed to this compromise in order to allow a separate bill extending consumer rebates under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to go through (HB 1738).

10 a.m. Senate Session- Senate Chamber
HB 155 relative to business enterprise tax returns and appropriating funds to the Department of Health and Human Services for licensed nursing facilities. The House plan to cut the Business Enterprise Tax from 0.55% to 0.5% was changed in the Senate to increase the filing threshold rather than lowering the rate. The Senate also added $2.5 million in additional Medicaid reimbursement for New Hampshire nursing homes. House conferees went along with the Senate version, but added a complex trigger mechanism that would lower BET rates in the future if business tax revenues come in well above projections and the state’s Rainy Day Fund is filled to its statutory limit.

HB 609 relative to the General Court’s authority over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, and other matters pertaining to firearms, stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray devices, knives, and other self-defense tools.
As amended, the bill would expand state preemption over local firearms ordinances to nonlethal devices such as Tasers and pepper spray. It would also require that any state agency policy limiting Second Amendment rights go through the state rulemaking process, thereby giving the legislature oversight of state gun regulations. All existing rules and policies would stay on the books, requiring state agencies to clear them through rulemaking over the next three years.

HB 751 establishes a committee to study the licensure of outpatient substance use disorder treatment facilities, authorizes parents to enroll their children in any public school in the state, and creates a limited exemption from the parental consent requirement for certain recordings under the Parental Bill of Rights.

School open enrollment is dead; long live open enrollment. A deal to expand the state’s open enrollment program was scuttled when Ayotte signaled her misgivings. A last-minute amendment would prevent school districts from blocking students from transferring to another open-enrollment school.

HB 1300 establishes a school district local tax cap question for the state general election of 2026 and related limitations on central office administrative expenses in school districts.
That would require towns to put a question on the fall ballot this year and in 2028 about whether to adopt a local tax cap. Republicans argue that voters should get the chance to weigh in during a high-turnout general election rather than the low-turnout local elections in the spring. Democrats don’t like tax caps in general and don’t want to force towns to put it on the November ballot.

HB 1816 relative to the intervention of the Department of Education into a school or school district during a financial emergency and requiring the state school board to establish rules governing the vetting of school district business administrator candidates.
In the wake of the Claremont School District’s financial meltdown, the legislature is taking steps to improve local financial controls. As amended, the bill would also strengthen vetting procedures for local school business administrators and subject them to the Educator Code of Conduct should they bungle the district’s budget.